^^ Look at this cute group of family who appeased us by coming to the Koala Park Sanctuary!
Are you keeping up with our Australia adventure so far, friends?! After spending Christmas and New Years Eve in Bathurst, gathering everyone together for some amazing family photos, taking a two-day date sojourn to Mudgee for some wine tasting, lapping the Mount Panorama racecourse, seeing kangaroos in the wild and meeting oh-so-many glorious family members, we were back in the car last Thursday to head to Sydney for our last few days in Australia. Our plans included staying at Chris’s aunt and uncles place (with their three amazing kids, all of whom had, coincidentally, visited us this past summer), and then moving on to his other aunt and uncle’s house, which was a bit closer to the airport and the beaches.
After the three hour drive on Friday from Bathurst to Sydney, we were happy to relax for the remainder of the day and swim in the fam’s amazing pool, while later in the evening Chris & I left the girls with Nan and Chris’s aunt and cousin so a couple of us could go see a cricket match – my first! I also got to see the Olympic Stadium, which was pretty cool, and eat fish and chips, which I am always on board for 😉
^^ The Australian Olympic Stadium, which was pretty impressive in real life!
^^ Just about the best, most fun ladies ever to hang with.
^^ Cricket! Chris’s family spent pretty much the entire game explaining to me how everything works, and by the end I almost understood! (Although don’t quiz me, because I will definitely fail!) Either way, it was really fun to watch the game with everyone, and it was a close game, too, which made it even better.
^^ And then there were fish and chips 😉 And beer. All the beer. (Actually I had cider, but still, you get the point.)
The next day it was on to one of my absolutely favorite places in Australia — the Koala Park Sanctuary. Chris and I visited this place with his parents on my first trip to Australia, and I will never, ever forget the feeling of being able to actually touch a koala and feed a kangaroo! Now to be honest, in the nine years since that first visit, the park has gotten a little run down. Everyone was so nice to come with us on our little koala park adventure to see Lotte and Grace with the kangaroos and koalas, but honestly, this is definitely not a spot you’ll find the locals. Still, I say, it’s totally worth it. Of course G was far too young to understand anything, but the look on Lotte’s face was priceless, and I’d like to believe that somewhere in the back of her brain, she’ll remember. Actually, she had a lot of fun feeding the emus with Nan and Poppa, as well, so that was also fun! I had forgotten how many additional animals were at this place (because, koalas! and kangaroos!), so we ended up staying about two hours there.
Time well spent, I’d say.
^^ The kangaroos weren’t all that interested in being fed the day we showed up, but seeing them this close up was cool enough on its own.
^^ Feeding the emus with Nan! What did I tell you — look at that face!
^^ And, of course, the reason we’re all here … to pat the koalas! I think Lotte was somewhere between amused and confused, but whatever it was she was thinking, it was pure adorable to watch.
^^ Absolutely love, love, love this crew, and everything they did for us to make everything on our stay so special.
Not even two full days into our stay in Sydney and we had accomplished quite a bit, including the Koala Park and the cricket game and swimming and playing and oh-so-much fun on top of fun on top of fun. My final post about our epic Aussie trip will be tomorrow, and I’ll share our beach visits and all the final things we did with the fam.
Starting to round up these blog posts is making me actually realize that the trip is over … and how exactly did that happen?! For all the planning and stressing and prepping we do for our vacations, suddenly, just like that, they are over.
Unless, like me, you blog about every last detail and share way too many photos so that you can relive them over and over and over and over again.
Who wouldn’t want to do that?!
Anyway, until next time — bis bald, friends!